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The reputable Tony Stark was a stranger to nervousness, yet it invited itself in anyway. To be perfectly honest, at one stage, he had serious doubts whether they would ever have their wedding. Between running Stark Industries, disbanding Iron Man and mourning the ones who were no longer with them, he genuinely believed that there was never going to be a wedding. Especially with the amount of rescheduling and postponing they'd had to do to accommodate everyone.
It had been a year since the events known as The Decimation, where the insane alien decided it knew what was best for the universe and ruthlessly slaughtered half of all living things. Tony still had nightmares of That Incident at least once a day, and he was immensely grateful for Pepper in those moments, as she cradled him to sleep, brushing the hair from his sweat-drenched brow with careful tenderness.
Pepper was about five months into her pregnancy – well, to be exact, she was five months and twenty-three days, give or take a couple of hours. Tony had taken to carefully monitoring her condition, an attempt to assuage his never-ending guilty conscience that his kid would die simply due to the fact that it had been cursed with the Stark legacy. Of course, she had not been best pleased with his frenzied hovering; she often made a point to give a daily lecture about how she did not want to be treated any differently simply because she currently saddled with child.
(Poor Happy had taken the brunt of her ire after he had made an innocuous comment after a long, arduous day at work. Even Tony had winced at the snappish tongue-lashing he had received and mouthed a, surprisingly sincere, sorry to the man as he hurried along after his soon-to-be bride.)
Needless to say, Tony was, more often than not, in the proverbial doghouse – and very, very occasionally in the literal doghouse too, but that was neither here nor there.
And he wouldn’t trade his family for the world.
Yet he could not escape the perpetual feeling that there was a hole in his heart where Peter had once resided; where he still did.
But for this one day, the pain had dulled to a familiar ache, and he felt a certain lightness ease in his chest. Some small part of him wondered whether it was the kid's good influence on his emotions that had him put a lid on his more self-loathing tendencies and grief. Lord knew how Peter would often lecture him in that innocent tone, trying his best to emulate the tone of voice commandeered by bosses, to stop being so hard on yourself, Mr. Stark.
For today, it seemed he was finally willing to take up Pete's advice.
Until Happy disrupted his internal monologue: "We'd better record the ceremony, boss. For Pete–”
Tony froze.
Happy scrambled to correct his error but the damage was already done. "For whenever we wanna watch it again."
(Wide doe-eyes widened up at him, shock and an emotion he could not place swimming within them. "I'm invited to the wedding?"
Tony gave him a funny look. "'Course you are, young buck. You're on comic relief duty. Plus, I'm gonna need you to help me remember my vows."
Peter had not been able to contain his joyous grin at the knowledge that he was personally invited. Tony felt himself soften at his awe-struck impression, the full weight of the kid's grin causing him to smile – a genuine smile, one of the few Tony kept on reserve for such occasions.
There was an unmistakable happiness radiating in the lab throughout the rest of that day, unusual yet so completely warming. Tony found himself thinking that he could lose himself in that feeling forever, surrounded by the people he cared for the most.)
Tony shook his head to dispel those memories. Thinking of the kid he lost would only exact a heavy-weight sadness into his soul, and he had promised both himself and Pepper – and Peter too, before he vanished – that he would do his best to be happy. Even if it were just for today. Besides, it was what Peter would have wanted and Tony knew that for a fact; that kid had been practically bursting at the seams for love and he was a big benefactor of spreading happiness, hence Spider-Man. The kid never had an evil bone in his body.
"Yeah, Hap. Record it. Oh, and make sure the video's the top of the range. I only exist in high-def."
Happy had grumbled light-heartedly at the order but otherwise acquiesced. He was no doubt pleased that he could record this moment – for Peter. Lord knew Happy had followed the kid from the early days with his love of 'vlogging', as the teens had taken to naming it, so perhaps it was only fitting that the gruff man would be the one to be the driving force behind the wedding video. In Peter's name.
Which. Speaking of. It truly was a beautiful ceremony. Tony swore his heart had given out as soon as he caught a glimpse of his Pep coming down that aisle, the white bounding off the natural light in the stuffy church. She was positively radiant. Tony wondered, not for the first time, what he had done to deserve someone as special as her in his life.
The vows he had once tasked Peter of remembering were relegated to the back of his mind, as he chose to take a leaf out of old Steve Rogers' book and speak from the heart. (A fool's task, admittedly – didn't you know Tony Stark had no heart?) And he had not faltered nor stumbled once as genuine words tumbled out of his mouth, softly at first and then faster and faster as his trusty confidence kicked in.
Pepper's answering smile and her own proclamation of love was undoubtedly one of the best privileges of his life.
No one mentioned the empty seat in the front row. Not even as Happy took a picture of the happy couple, chair in the background, and later gave a copy to the newly wed billionaire.